A have-a-go granny and her hero son leapt to the rescue of a driver who became engulfed in flames at a petrol station.

The 60-year-old man was using Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) from a pump at a Morrison's in Eccles to refill a bottle in a compartment on the side of his vehicle - to use in his cooker - when it caught fire.

The blaze, thought to have been sparked by the hot weather as he filled up for a three-month trip to Dorset, then spread to his hands.

With his terrified wife and two dogs in the vehicle, who were ‘singed’ by the flames, he frantically tried to battle the fire with pillows.

But they grew stronger and the driver, understood to suffer from emphysema and heart problems, was in serious danger.

Luckily, Edith Ellison, 64, and her son Neil, 42, were on the forecourt.

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Edith, of Salford, said: “We were filling up the car when I could suddenly smell a really strong petrol smell.

“Then there was a really loud bang and I looked over and I could see the camper van had set on fire.

“A man was there, shouting ‘get out, get out!’ so I shouted for Neil.”

Forgetting his own safety, Neil sprinted to the station counter, where manager Sue Nolan, 51, handed him a fire extinguisher.

Rushing back to the camper van, Neil, started to spray with powder on the driver’s hands, which were on fire.

By the time two fire engines from Eccles and Moss side arrived at the supermarket off the A57 Bentcliffe Way this afternoon, the fire had been put out.

But the petrol station was closed for around an hour while emergency crews secured the scene. The man needed dressings for minor burns on his hands. His camper van was also damaged in the fire.

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